Apple’s CarPlay infotainment system is finally coming to all of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) in North America thanks to a little help from Android.
Fiat Chrysler revealed its new Uconnect 5 platform for cars today that is five times faster than the previous version. FCA says Uconnect 5 was built with future growth in mind and comes with support for CarPlay along with Android Auto and Alexa. It’s basically the Swiss-army knife of in-dash infotainment systems.
Uconnect 5 was completely rebuilt off the Android operating system while still giving drivers access to CarPlay. Personalization is one of the tentpole features. It supports up to five user profiles so you can reestablish all of your preferences with the tap of a button. You can also two Bluetooth phones to it simultaneously so passengers and drivers can both make inputs.
Uconnect 5 goes all-in on CarPlay
For CarPlay lovers, there’s a new wireless connectivity feature that lets you project apps on your car’s display. Uconnect previously only supported CarPlay on 80 percent of FCA vehicles sold in the U.S. The company says CarPlay will now be on 100% of new vehicles sold in North America but an exact release date hasn’t been given.
Voice controls were another big focus of Uconnect 5. The platform has an all-new voice recognition engine that you can talk to naturally instead of doling out robotic commands. The entire system is powered by a 50K MIP chip, 6GB of RAM and 64GB of flash memory to make it snappier than the old version.
On the navigation side, FCA built-in TomTom support. You can still use Apple Maps or Google Maps can through your phone if that’s your preference. TomTom supports a new feature called Maps Over the Air that automatically detects, downloads and installs maps you might need.
